One of the most prominent features of the heritage of Swaminarayan
is temple architecture. The images in the temples built by
Swaminarayan are the evidence of the priority of Krishna. All of the temples constructed during his
life show some form of Krishna, and all
temples since have such worshipable murtis. In the temples of the dioceses of
Ahmedabad and Vadtal, they are predominantly a central altar or a
shrine. Human forms are predominant for an known
exception of a Hanuman temple at Sarangpur, where Hanuman is the
central figure. The temples have accommodations for sadhus
built next to them. Stones were quarried in far places and carried
to the temple sites.

Swaminarayan temples, like other Hindu temples, have walkways
around the central shrine to allow worshipers to circumambulate the shrine. These are often
decorated with designs and inlaid marble. The main shrine area is
divided by railings. One side of the railing is reserved for women,
as Swaminarayan propagated that men and women should be separated
in temples to allow full concentration on god. Men do a specified
number of prostrations (as decided by
themselves). In front of the men's section, there is a small
section reserved for ascetics and special guests. There is great
variety in form and nature of the central images, in front of which
are gold- or silver-plated doors that open during darshan.

Today there are over a thousand Swaminarayan temples, spread across
five continents, which come under the
above two Gadis (seats) of the Swaminarayan Sampraday.